This past weekend was the first time spectators were allowed to attend outdoor sporting events since the pandemic began.

This is a good thing for the athletes. It’s a lot more fun to compete when people are cheering on the sidelines. For youth sports in particular, seeing and hearing support from your loved ones is invaluable. Two boys gave gut-punch quotes to KHON2 about the absence of their families at their games: “I was mad they weren’t here,” one boy said. “I kinda felt like nobody really cared about me,” the other boy said.

Of course, whenever kids are affected, so are parents. The little extra salt in the wound was watching visitors congregate for beach parties while local parents were stuck in the parking lot trying to watch their kids play soccer 50 yards away. In the ongoing jungle gym of our local mandates, allowing families to watch sports outside together is a small but meaningful step.

But the truth is, watching sports is not just good for the people playing; it’s also good for the people watching, in ways that are distinctly relevant for us here in Hawaii…

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…You can trace the origins of Hawaii’s warrior spirit back centuries to when the ruling class and warrior class were one and the same, and it has only evolved through the years. Now, it speaks more broadly to a sense of honor and courage, a willingness to face obstacles head-on no matter the odds.

In this way, few people have embodied Hawaii’s warrior spirit better than Brennan. He took our most beloved sport to the biggest stage it’s ever been on and inspired a generation of fans and players along the way. He gave us all permission to dream big, and to believe in our capacity to achieve those dreams without reservation.

Yet the same warrior mentality that electrified all of us on the football field was also his downfall off the field. It united the islands at the same time it irrevocably damaged his brain.

Looking at the outpouring of support this past week, it’s clear just how much Brennan did for Hawaii. But when he needed it most, how much did we do for Brennan?

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It’s been a while since I was the type of guy to go to a club, but know what’s something I don’t remember? The cover charge.

It was a totally forgettable transaction, simply an established and expected part of the deal: if you want to go somewhere that a lot of other people also want to go, you have to pony up just to get inside. If you don’t want to pay, you can go somewhere else.

Cover charges surely drive some customers away sometimes, and there is certainly a threshold of reasonability — nobody will pay $500 at the door, for example. But if the destination can justify the cost, people will pay.

You’ve probably gathered that this is about tourism.

According to a recent Hawaii Tourism Authority survey, 66% of people agreed that Hawaii “is run for tourists at the expense of locals.”

It’s hard not to feel this way…

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